Foster Care Experiences Contest.

My Mother In-law participated in fostering troubled children from our community, she used a small agency located in our town. I used to sit for her and came to know most of the many children that came into our home.
Fostering is one thing but with our agency will call them "BlackSheep", you only got the kids the county couldn’t place, “BlackSheep” foster parents were the last stop before the group home. Which is like a prison of sorts.
Some of the kids we had were abused in more ways then one, their families we drug attics or hardened criminals, and as a result the pour children had many problems. I am wholeheartedly for the foster care system, but when it comes to these children, the “BlackSheep” children the foster families are mainly in it for the money.
I can remember one evening in particular, we had two little boys at the time we'll call them Adam and Able, they were 11 and 8 years old, they both had many health problem and even some digestive disorders from when the lived with their mother, she was addicted to crack cocaine and never kept food in the house. Able the younger of the two was caught in my brother in-laws bedroom playing with his expensive action figures and my brother in-law threw a tremendous fit, especially for a 19 year old. He went to his mother and demanded that she request the boys be removed he was tired of having to share his stuff, he was tired of having to be nice to them and most of all he was tired of not being able to strike them when he thought they deserved it.
What she said after that made me sick, I lost all respect for the woman that day, She calmly looked at him and smiled telling him to do what she did," When they make you mad look over their heads and see the dollar sign."
Soon enough I learned that she truly did not care at all about the children, she treated them like little slaves, and never did anything nice for them and even put alarms on their doors to keep them from wandering the house before she decided to crawl out of bed.
Many children went in and out of that house, and I know it's because if they did something my mother in-law didn’t like she would send them off and get a new one. I wonder how many other families do this?
These poor kids are already so messed up, they need support and kindness and unconditional love. They need somewhere safe where they feel they belong. Not to be put in a home where they are unwanted and ignored!
My mother in-law has since moved and we do not keep in contact, but the last I heard she had now 5 foster children and kicked out my ex-husband when he couldn’t get along with them stating. "When you can give me 3,600 dollars a month you can come back and I'll get rid of them."
So she's still at it, and it saddens me, I'm sure there are at least a few loving families out there though children could really benefit from being with.
I wish there was a way that the system could screen these greedy selfish people and realize they are not good parents at all.

C.A.Hobby